Re:No Pay Stub? No Problem. Unconventional Mortgages Make a ...
by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @12:18PM
(#18980207)
> Here's a really nice diagram about how sub-prime mortgages were packaged into MBS (with AAA tranches), whose lower tranches were packaged into CDOs (with AAA tranches), whose lower tranches were packaged into CDO-squareds (also with AAA tranches)
It's a helpful diagram! What it doesn't say is each of those AAA tranches actually [erfpr,ed. When you look back at how the AAA tranches of CDO-squareds circa 2005 to 2008 paid out, they pretty much all behaved like AAA securities.
Those tranches were solvent. In many cases, their junior tranches were solvent. What none of those tranches were was liquid. I can hold a security that will pay me $1,000 indefinitely, but if nobody will buy it for more than a penny, it isn't useful if my trading group is busy diving into a liquidity crisis. (Granted, ratings don't say anything about the liquidity of a thing. Just its solvency.)
It's a helpful diagram! What it doesn't say is each of those AAA tranches actually [erfpr,ed. When you look back at how the AAA tranches of CDO-squareds circa 2005 to 2008 paid out, they pretty much all behaved like AAA securities.
Those tranches were solvent. In many cases, their junior tranches were solvent. What none of those tranches were was liquid. I can hold a security that will pay me $1,000 indefinitely, but if nobody will buy it for more than a penny, it isn't useful if my trading group is busy diving into a liquidity crisis. (Granted, ratings don't say anything about the liquidity of a thing. Just its solvency.)